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In this week’s Prospect Report, we look overseas as the NHL turns its attention away from the trade deadline to free agent season. As leagues wrap up their playoffs NHL teams will look for key additions they can make outside of trades or drafting and developing.
Chapin Landvogt has compiled an extensive look at potential European players who could be signed as free agents by NHL teams on www.mckeenshockey.com for our subscribers. You will find the link to it in the article below. From that, we have highlighted ten free agents you will likely be hearing about soon.
Two weeks ago, Brock Otten did a round up NCAA prospects that should sign their first pro contract in this space and can be found here . Next week, we will look at the recent NCAA free agent signings and any remaining possibilities as the playoffs wrap up with the Frozen Four taking place April 7th to 9th in the TD Garden in Boston.
The McKeen’s team are scouting and writing about prospects all season long and provide in-depth reports on our website: www.mckeenshockey.com
European Leagues Free Agent Watch
By Chapin Landvogt
Fans of NHL teams love to see their team sign players. College free agents, Canadian junior free agents, players who went unsigned by other teams due to prospect logjams - fans just love seeing these guys signed. Getting excited about already sculpted players out of Europe at the end of each and every season has basically become a pastime for fans across the NHL.
And we’re at the time of the year when a season long scouting of European leagues leads to a few NHL signings involving players who are usually in their mid- to late 20s and either needed more time to develop after being NHL prospects in earlier years or have developed to a point where they’ve turned themselves into an NHL topic. Sometimes, they’re coming out of nowhere, so to speak, having never really been seen as NHL possibilities until now. Others are still young but were never drafted for whatever reason and are now looking like legitimate prospects to add to the stable.
Examples of such signings took place a little over a week ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs looked to bring in goaltender Harri Säteri, a 32-year-old known commodity with plenty of AHL and KHL experience. He recently won a gold medal with Finland at the Olympics and the Leafs, with well-documented goaltending issues, were looking for a playoff answer. By now you’ve all seen that the Arizona Coyotes claimed Säteri off waivers, as UFAs his age will need to go through the waiver wire process to land with the team they’ve actually signed with. A different case was seen with center Ilya Usov, a Belarussian who had a real nice WHL season in the initial Covid-shortened year and has spent the past two seasons in the KHL. With 26 points in 40 games for Minsk, Tampa Bay had seen enough to give the gifted 20-year-old an ELC. Notoriously short on draft picks due to obvious yearly contention, this is one of the ways in which the franchise goes about supplementing its system. To be noted is that Usov could have entered the draft for a 4th straight year.
The following list is not mean to capture all of the players that could attract attention but offers a few highlights. In the full article available to McKeen’s Hockey subscribers (found here) we cover a further group of free agents in detail, including Freddy Tiffels, Patrik Kallvist. The article also includes some ‘outside the box possibilities’ in Frederik Forsberg, Andreas Eder, Mika Henauer and Samuel Bucek. In addition, there are players out there such as Lucas Wallmark, Denis Malgin, Dominik Kahun, and Nikita Nesterov who spent the season in Europe and played at the Olympics, and who have been in the NHL as late as just last season. Then there are bubble prospects such as Peter Cehlarik, who almost broke through with the Boston Bruins organization, but has now spent two years in Europe showing and refining his wares in the SHL and KHL.
The European hockey scene has its fair share of players currently in that or similar situations. The Olympics have given this a new dynamic, as such players tend to first become hot topics during and after the IIHF Men’s World Championship, which will be held in May. However, these Olympic games, free of NHLers, gave teams the huge opportunity to view all sorts of players they’d possibly like to add to their organization.
With all this in mind, here’s a set of players you shouldn’t be surprised to see your favorite NHL team sign throughout the spring.
Andrei Kuzmenko - RUS - 26 - RW - 20-33-53 in 45 KHL games
There’s little doubt that Kuzmenko is the prize of Russian free agents at the moment. Not only did he finish second in KHL scoring but has a sack full of slick tricks and shows fantastic agility. The author of three straight 30-plus point seasons for St. Petersburg leading up to this season, he has had a career year and it’s continuing in the playoffs, where he currently has 13 points in 11 games. It’s felt he could step right into the NHL and at 26, seems to be a particularly popular age for bringing over KHL free agents. Naturally, plenty will wonder if he can be anything more than we saw in recent years from Nikita Gusev. And with the current political climate, it’s really yet to be determined just how free identifiable Russian players will be to sign elsewhere, or if teams are even willing to take that step. For our purposes, we’ll identify Kuzmenko as simply very sought after under other, less grievous circumstances.
Max Veronneau - CAN - 26 - RW - 34-26-60 in 50 SHL games
You’ll recognize Veronneau as the free agent out of Princeton who was signed by the Ottawa Senators a few years back. Well, it didn’t work out. After two disappointing post-college seasons, he made his way to Sweden last year and looked pretty good. Leksands added him this season and he’s been basically the most dominant winger in the league. It’s been a while since anyone has scored this many goals in the SHL and its well-reported that NHL scouts have been attending games in recent weeks. Fortunately for Veronneau, his offense has been so regularly varied (shooting, passing, one-timers, goal-mouth scrambles, etc.) that teams can possibly view him in a variety of offensive roles. Unfortunately for Veronneau, he’ll miss the playoffs with a broken arm.
Strauss Mann - USA - 23 - G - 13-9-0, 2.19 GAA, .914 SV% in 22 SHL games
The US Olympian was playing for Michigan just last season, one that concluded with his name bandied about as a possible UFA signing. Instead, he went to Sweden and has pitched three shutouts in a role as a 1B for one of the SHL’s hottest contenders. What role he’ll get in the playoffs has yet to be determined, but Mann has remained in NHL eyes and is doing something that has rarely ever been seen of a collegian upon completion of his collegiate career. His two Olympic showings with a GAA of 1.85 and a .945 SV% solidified his status as a hot UFA. If he isn’t signed, then you can assume he didn’t like the offers.
Adam Tambellini - CAN - 27 - LW - 24-19-43 in 38 SHL games
You know him as a 2013 third round pick of the New York Rangers. You also recognize him as the son of former NHLer Steve Tambellini. What you may not know is that the 6’4” giant has been an absolute power play weapon for the past two seasons and has become, with his strength and puck-protection wherewithal, simply too good for the best league in Europe outside of the KHL. In addition to the shiny stats, he’s a +24, placing him in the top five in the SHL and tallied seven points in five games for Canada at the Olympics. He’s at a point where he’s ready to step into an NHL role in a middle six capacity next season.
Michael Spacek - CZE - 24 - C - 10-36-46 in 49 SHL games
A former fourth rounder of the Winnipeg Jets, the 5’11”, 187-pound Spacek had three fairly successful seasons of AHL play after two strong years of WHL play, but just couldn’t quite beat out the prospect competition within the Jets’ organization for a shot at the NHL. So, he’s taken his gig to Europe and has only continued to progress for two straight seasons, with this one being his most solid year as a pro. In fact, he garnered first line ice time for what is widely considered the most professional and well-balanced outfit in Europe, making his -5 a wee bit questionable. His success this season as a player the opposition just can’t seem to shut down has been rounded out by an Olympic appearance for the Czech Republic and nine points in 12 Championship Hockey League games. NHL teams and scouts are well aware of Spacek and would be adding a far more refined player then he even was just two seasons ago.
Jiri Smejkal - CZE - 25 - LW - 25-20-45 in 44 Liiga games
Never drafted, the hulking 6’4”, 225-pound Smejkal is a former WHLer and WJC participant who now has both WC and Olympic Games experience. Slow to develop in a scoring capacity, this season has been Smejkal’s breakthrough year after taking some nice steps with Tappara last season and four years of slow and patient growth with Sparta Prague before that. Naturally, it was never thought to be likely that Smejkal would one day make it all go click or else a national team player bringing his size to the table would have been grabbed somewhere in the course of four years of draft eligibility. At this point, his signing by an NHL team seems inevitable and that team would have to be looking to get results similar to that of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ signing of Radim Zohorna several years ago.
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Lukas Ekestahl Jonsson – SWE – 26 – D – 7-29-36 in 50 SHL games
Ekestahl Jonsson has been one of those prototypical defensive projects that seem to be seen with regularity in Swedish ice hockey, namely the kind that often get added by NHL clubs, even if doesn’t lead to an NHL gig. Names like Joel Persson and Carl-Johan Lerby come to mind. Nonetheless, Ekestahl Jonsson was a lightweight standout in Swedish juniors, then broke through slowly in the Allsvenskan before taking his show to Finland for two years, where he was a solid two-way Liiga defender. That was followed by his first two SHL seasons, both of which were promising, but lacked the overall breakthrough his talent and abilities indicated he was capable. Then came this season, in which the 6 foot, 187-pound lefty shot has been a top-flight point producer and power play quarterback for one of Sweden’s top clubs. His game is silky smooth and cerebral. He’s very poised and controlled. In addition, it’s been years since he ended a season with a minus rating. If you’re a pro scout for an NHL team who has followed his evolution, your thought at this point has got to be that now is the time to bring him over and see if he can be an answer on your NHL blueline within the next season or two. In addition to manning the point on the power play, his strengths lie in having the puck on his stick and orchestrating breakouts. That’s something a few teams out there could really use more of.
Filip Chlapik - CZE - 24 - C - 31-39-70 in 53 Czech Top League games
A former draft pick of the Ottawa Senators, the veteran of 57 NHL games (11 points) spent this season with simply one club in Europe, Sparta Prague, in an effort to show that he’s more than a lower line option in an organization with a full prospect bin. Whether he’s open to more AHL time with any team willing to sign him is unlikely, but he led the Czech Republic in scoring this year while chipping in six points and a plus-eight in nine Champions Hockey League games internationally and has nine points in seven playoff games, letting hockey people know just how he wants to be seen. Currently signed to play with Ambri-Piotta in the NL next season, an NHL contract could naturally lead the 6’2”, 207 pounder with a plus-29 rating elsewhere, but it’d likely have to be with a team that has a third line center job - with offensive expectations - open for the taking.
Lukas Klok - CZE - 26 - D - 5-26-31 in 44 KHL games
It’s a well-known adage that defensemen can require some time to become all they can be. After spending half a season in the USHL many moons ago, Klok has quietly plugged his way through the Czech pro circuit throughout his early 20s and after two solid seasons in Finland, jumped to the KHL this year, where he had by far his best season ever. Not only was he his team’s top-scoring defenseman, but he was also its 2nd leading scorer overall, only one point behind the team leader. He then led the team in playoff scoring with four points in four games. This came on the tails of a strong Olympic performance including three points in four games. What makes this all so enticing is that he had created a profile as a strong-skating defensive defenseman who reads the game well. At 6’1”, 198 lbs., he doesn’t need to shy away from anyone either. He’s technically still got a KHL contract, but many are expecting there to be somewhat of an exodus from the KHL this offseason for obvious political reasons, which has already begun during the league’s playoffs in recent weeks.
Pontus Andreasson – SWE – 23 – C/LW – 18-20-38 in 53 SHL games
The 5’10”, 183-pound winger has been one of the biggest surprises in the SHL this year. And he’s been doing most of his damage over the second half of the season. With numbers that are outstanding for any first year SHLer, including a +19 rating, an outstanding eight goals and 14 points have first come over his past 10 games. 4-1-5 of that has come in the first two playoff games. A crafty and mobile player with a keen sense of generating offense, Andreasson has displayed an above-average one-timer from the right face-off circle, which gets regular use on the power play. Making his feats stick out all that much more is that he was brought into the league by Lulea with a bit of an asterisk, as every year a number of teams hope to find gold with younger players coming out of the Swedish Allsvenskan. Indeed, Andreasson first really turned heads last season with Björkloven, which bowed out to Timra in the Allsvenskan finals, when he put up 14-28-42 numbers in 68 total games. Nice, but hardly indicative of the torrid pace he’d deliver this season with one of the SHL’s top contenders. He’s at a good age for NHL teams to see the promise and bring him into the fold with a 2-year ELC.